Legal Blog

New NLRB Standards May Change How Lenders Use Facebook

January 30, 2018

For most banks, the National Labor Relations Board has little to no influence on how they do business. After all, banking is not an industry associated with labor unions. However, Lenders — and all covered businesses — are subject to provisions of the National Labor Relations Act, even if they are not unionized.

One provision of the NLRA prohibits employers from undermining employees’ rights to engage in concerted protected activity — a form of free speech aimed at protesting the terms or conditions of employment.

Under President Obama, the NLRB passed broad standards, including a determination that even neutral workplace rules violate the NLRA if they could “chill” participation in concerted protected activity. To that end, many employers were found to have violated the NLRA through their monitoring of employee Facebook accounts because doing so would impede employees from voicing their concerns on social media.

ABOUT ARI KAREN

Ari Karen is an experienced litigator and speaker who has focused his practice in representing financial institutions in both government investigations and litigation before state and federal trial and appellate courts nationwide.

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